Memorial weekend came in like a Lion, and stayed that way. After all rains of the first third of the month it was nice to have a stretch there without a lot of precipitation. It has been a month of the trials and tribulations, and not a lot of blogging got in the way of that and I'm sorry about that. Things have been going on as is to be expected, that is indeed the nature of things.
Memorial weekend. Three days off in a row. A chance to get to some of the side work that has been begging for my attention. A chance to exercise my body to the point of severe exhaustion and muscle strain. in other words Yardening time again. Friday night after work Jenni and I went to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse with our friend Melissa Shoffner, who asked if I was doing any yard projects since it seems that I normally do on Memorial Weekend. I hadn't realized I was that predictable, but she called it. The weather agreed and the time was right.
A while back Jenni had mentioned that the plantings and ring around the tree in the front yard was getting a bit ragged looking. I had been thinking about it too for a few month, but was on a long un-inspirational streak and it was not a priority. Other yard projects took priority, like the back and side yards where we spend way more time, so they had been getting the lion's share of my attention since early April.

Here are the results of the front yard "tree-juvination", I wish I had taken a before photo, but in a way I'm glad I didn't, it was really out of hand (and actually had a few volunteer trees growing in the ring). What you miss by not having a pre-tree-tment shot is that I also enlarged the ring to accommodate more pretty things.
Chuck Pace ©2010
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I said, “This was a great night, I have to blog it!”
She said absolutely nothing.
I had thought (hoped) she might ask, inquire, respond, shrug, wonder... something.
She didn’t.
I got home only a few minutes after she did. I parked my car in the garage and moved hers (while she was walking the dog) to the the driveway; not because I think my car belongs under cover and hers doesn’t, but because I leave after she does nearly every morning, (and it would be two cars to move every morning the other way around) and further more if I’d gotten home a minute or two earlier I would be one walking the dog and she would be parking in the drive without a problem anyway what-so-ever. This was not the problem.
I went to beer club after work. Beer club is a Friday ritual, (the math is: each member of beer club brings a beer, then each member has an equal amount of each beer brought to beer club, so if 4 people bring one beer each, and it is divided by 4 each member ends up having 1 beer (5 members, 5 beers divided 5 combined beer consumption, 1 beer, etc, etc...). How many beers did you taste tonight? 5. This is scary, and yet, so far the death toll for beer club remains stable at 0. Tonight it was just RJ and I, the other members of BC were off to a Nascar Race.
After beer club I went to Taps & Dolls with RJ, we talked about the NCAA tournament, beauty, work and darts (which we did not intend to throw this evening). We watched the TV’s over the bar and talked to Cassie and Brandy the current “dolls” in the establishments naming. The boss shows up and orders us another round and the tab for himself. We all leave together after the completion of that. It’s not yet 6:20, I drive to the Avenue and park, talk to a few friends. Travis and Liz are on the patio. I sit and order, then Travis says, “ You just missed Brock.” I look up the Avenue and see a Honda with windows up and bearing Ohio plates backing out of a parking spot. I jump up and head that way. I yell, “BROCK, pull over and get out! He pulls the car into the parking spaces beside the Box and I run to the door. He gets out I assume a stand-off stance. legs spread, body balanced, arms out and ready for any move he might make. He moves forward deliberately and we hug! I apologize for missing the wedding, we exchange pleasantries, promise to be better at keeping up and hug again, then he leaves after another warm embrace. I walk back to the table and Travis and Liz.
My Osiris waits, as does Clayton the classic car aficionado and Melissa G. along with Travis and Liz. David comes over and says that the people across the Avenue thought there was going to be a fight after I yelled and ran over to a car that pulled off the street into a side lot and then stood outside the door with my arms raised in a very challenging stance.
We all laughed about that and about dating and cars, and oil changes (long story). Then Liz had to tell us a great story about a midget, a mom and a mentally challenged member of society. It was an amusing story and a jaw dropper that was too ridiculous to not be true.
Travis and Liz left, Melissa and Clayton left and I went in to settle my tab and talk to Nicci about the passing of one of our Jazz friends.
On the way out I walked by Luna Music and saw my good friend Maggie in a rare appearance on a Friday night, and the joint was jumping with customers and beats! After waiting a few minutes we got to talk for a few.
Maggie says, “I saw Brock!” I said I did too he was pulling out and I hollered. I recapped the story and she said she heard through the open Luna door people saying that there was going to be a fight!
I picked out a CD and paid for it , just then Jenni called and told me she would pick up eats if I was coming home, I said I’m coming home right now, then said I’m at Luna and recommended a CD she had previously told me was coming out soon. She said, “Yeah pick that up.”
I did. Maggie tried to say something to Jenni on my phone but she had already hung up. I got the CD, and started listening to it as I drove home; about a 14 minute drive. I drove up as Jenni was walking Charlie. I pulled my car into the open garage.
I shut off the car, ejected the CD, gathered my jacket and bag and got out. Jenni and Charlie were coming back into the garage and headed to the door to the house as I said, “This was a great night, I have to blog it!”
She said absolutely nothing.
I left the CD's in front of Jenni's computer.
Chuck Pace ©2010
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So I've recounted the adventures of the broken spring, and the door lift Olympics up to the point that I headed off to work.
The tale continues...
By the time I got on the road after doing my upper-body and cardio exercise for the foreseeable future I realized I would not be getting to work before 9:00 (instead of 8:30ish), and I was hungry and really needed a cup of Joe anyway. I stopped at the Hardee's (just two minutes from home) on Post and 22nd St. and ordered the Ultimate Omelet breakfast combo with OJ instead of Java. I started out to get onto the interstate when the iPhone rang, it was Jenni telling me that the Garage Door Doctor people had called back and would be there by 2:00 PM. Even better the ad they had on the internet said a full service 12 point check and spring replacement would run $240.00 and the phone voice told her that it would be $140 for our spring and check up.

The new shiny spring that lifts the garage door.
The day at work started quietly but by 12:30 the place was jumping, by 4:30 we were all beat, and ready for home and rest.
Before I left I checked my phone for messages and saw that Jenni had posted a couple of comments about the door service.
They called before they came, they were on time and they were gone in less than an hour, the charge was $140 as quoted and the door works. I did have to adjust the down force on the opener but other than that it is smoother and quieter and works like new. The amazing thing is that the original spring lasted over 18 years, the technician told jenni that 4 to 5 years is average. I guess that in the next half decade I'll be hearing that thrum and seeing another spring burst, but I will hold out hope that it will be eighteen years or later.

Chuck Pace ©2010
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Jenni and I had gone to bed and were sleeping soundly when there came a noise that stood us both up in bed. A noise like a Giant loosing an arrow from a massive compound bow. The thrum of the mythic bow woke us and we both said, "What the hell was that?!"
I said, "It sounded like it came from outside!"
She said, "No it was from the garage!"
I pulled on a shirt and went to look, she wasn't far behind me. I opened the door to the garage, and turned on the lights. At first glance nothing seemed amiss. I hit the opener switch and the opener pull the top panel towards itself, but the door did not raise, and the machine stopped after a second or s. It was soon obvious that the torsion spring above the door that assists the lift through two cabled pulleys on either end of the two car garage door had snapped into two pieces. There was nothing to be done that night.
This morning my first alarm went off at 5:35 AM,m I set the snooze timer for 12 minutes but didn't fall back asleep, instead I was planning my strategies on dealing with the massively heavy insulated two car garage door. When the alarm sounded I got up dressed and took the dog for his morning constitutional walk, then, back inside I went to the garage and started pulling out what I would need to get the door up and the car out. Three two by fours of varying length and a short four by four block, and my three ton floor jack and handle.
I wedged a short two by four under the hand lift handle right off the floor and put another two by four under it and levered the door up about 3 inches. Then I took yet another two by four and turned it sideways under the door, took the four by four and levered the door up another few inches. Now there was room to get the lifting plate of the floor jack under the door and I jacked it to it's maximum 20 inch height. I rested one of the two by fours that was about 4 feet long against my chest and shoulder, then I squatted at the knees, grasped the door base and did a weightlifting "clean and jerk" move to get it high enough. With one trembling arm and hand holding the weight I positioned the 4 foot two by four under the door at about chin height.
The two by four in place and holding the door I rested and caught my breath for about a minute. Then I did a squat move using my legs and "pressed" the door the rest of the way up the tracks, gingerly releasing my hands ready to stop it if it decided to heed gravities call. It stayed up. After another brief rest I moved the BMW and then backed the convertible out of the garage onto the snow dusted driveway. That accomplished I pulled and eased the massive weight of the door gently back to the floor and made my way back into the house and prepared for work.
By then Jenni was up and surfing the inter-webs for a garage door specialist to bring spring early to our vehicular storage space. She found just the place Garage Door Doctor only a couple of miles from our humble abode. I called and left a message, then kissed her goodbye and was off to work, to get some much needed rest.
Chuck Pace ©2010
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I fell out of the temporal time plane for a day. I fell due to an event in my cerebral cortex and my temporal lobe. I had one of the worst migraines of my adult life. It came on as sudden as a lightning strike, and was as devastating as a category 5 tornado. While others were recovering from a stormy day I was entering my own internal eye wall. It was hell. Dante's Inferno, the seventh level and all I can say is I don't ever want to got back there.

Paul Chenavard's (1807-1885) reproduction of Dante's Inferno

Up early, the rains were already pounding the house, the gutter and downspout on the stoop (it's hardly large enough to qualify as a porch) were clogged by maple tree seeds and other leaves and debris. Normally I would get the lightweight wooden ladder out and work on the problem, but yesterday after the multiple hours of gardening that Jenni and I did Jenni took the old wooden ladder and turned it into a fire engine red garden ornament. So I wrestled the birthday present, high-tech aluminum ladder out of its cubby in my over crowded garage and extended it on the stoop and sidewalk and unclogged the blockage during the heaviest part of the storm. Jenni commented to our friend Gabe in Puerto Rico on Facebook that I was out on a metal ladder in the storm. When I came back in I said to tell him that it didn't work out.


The "fresh" garden looking in from the outside.
Notice my old work ladder now a cucumber and bean ladder.
That task out to the way I made breakfast for my bride and myself, she made coffee and cut up a tasty cantaloupe and we had a fine moment or two together.

A few hours later, after busily doing nothing else of any importance I decided to download some songs from Amazon's MP3 online downloads. I also uploaded a few applications to the iPhone and played some Mike's Cards solitaire. The next major decision was snacks and what to watch on the TV. We tried to watch Quantum of Solace but this copy, like the one I bought a few weeks ago won't play on my new Blu-Ray player either. It looks like an upgrade issue and is a bummer. Everything else I have in Blu-Ray works just fine. It is an Insignia (BestBuy house brand) player and the online reviews are not to complimentary, still we ended up watching the Dark Knight and after that the season finale of Castle and an Office both from the DVR. Then Jenni told me that Reaper is not coming back next season and ruined the moment. Jenni did manage a couple of trips to exchange clothes and get some stuff from the grocery store. I also managed to get outside between the rainier moments and get a few photos off, but during the whole day of laziness and self-absorption neither Jenni or I were able to drive over to Kays to return the borrowed Mantis. I want to thank all the soldiers, sailors, men and women who put their lives on the line for this country for giving me the ability to be lazy and relaxed on a holiday day off to honor them. We still live in the greatest country in the world.
Top Left: A leaf holding a micro pool of the days wet.
Bottom Right: The "Dry" Creek bed fills with water during heavy rains. The bamboo, dragon plants and various stones are supposed to simulate a dry creek.
Chuck Pace ©2009 
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Remember 1994? Things were different then, maybe better for some, maybe not. It is in the past so the bad gets diminished in many aspects and the good get glorified, Nostalgia does that. I was waxing nostalgic during the extra hour Jenni let me lounge in bed. I was remembering, and after I got up I discovered it was 1994 I was remembering. Wax on, wax off (No I wasn't thinking about the Karate Kid, you are, I wasn't. Besides that was 1984). I remember a TV show. M.A.N.T.I.S.; (Carl Lumbly), Dr. Miles Hawkings wheelchair bound genius builds an exoskeleton suit to allow him to walk, and after a catastrophic event (oddly enough) an exoskeleton that becomes a crime fighting tool. His lovely assistant Dr. Amy Ellis was played by Gina Torres, her first role according to IMDB. Gina Torres who was Zoë Washburn in Firefly. Whedonesque. Raimiesgue: M.A.N.T.I.S. was the brain child of Sam Raimi of Evil Dead, The Spider-man franchise, Darkman and so many other films and series including this years much talked about horror flick "Drag Me To Hell!"
This post has nothing to do with that.
Today is the day of the mantis tiller, a race, a birthday celebration and much, much more. I'm heading to Kay's in a few minutes to borrow her mantis so that I can plant my peppers, tomatoes, squash, beets and cucumbers today before all the other festivities (including predicted rain). It just so happens that my mind links to the strangest of things when I am able to drift in a semi-recumbent position neither fully awake or asleep and I remembered this T.V. show. It started out being about that link, then Gina Torres. Now it's back to gardening, since I'm up and ready to go.
Chuck Pace ©2009 
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Thursday I did some chores and worked my rump off, I slept in late because I could but when I got up it was Johnny bar the door. I wrote 3 stanzas that explains. it.

Yesterday I got a little sore
I was higher than the ceiling
I was flat down on the floor
I fished inside my walls
I fished without a shore

Yesterday I realized a sonic delight
I climbed outside the walls
I reached a satellite
and got a call from deepest space
Yesterday turned out all right

Yesterday I won a drywall fight
and knocked a hole into the heavens
that won't let in any light
But the sound it made was perfect
So I listened to it throughout the night

Thursday I made 7 trips into the attic, two trips to Home depot and ran 75 feet of specialized antenna cable diagonally from one corner of my attic to the wall of my home entertainment area, then down that wall 7 feet to a custom made (by me) gang box that carried the TV cable, the XM cable and on wall speaker cords out to their respective components and back up through the attic. Friday I was so sore in my upper-body from hauling myself through the access panel in the garage that even shrugging made me wince. I never realized how often I shrug, oh well (ouch) I learned something.
Chuck Pace ©2009 
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Hi Ho Hi Ho, its off to shovel snow. Wednesday was everything thought it would be an so much more. I did underestimate the customer count. There were actually over a dozen consumers in the store in that snow day.
My Starbucks at Conseco was dead. I had never seen two baristas sit at the same time before. It was a kodak moment.
I walked to the circle and deposited some checks, and had a bowl of soup at the South Bend Chocolate Company, there was plenty of outdoor . Then back south and once again into the (thermal) breeches!

Outdoor Dining is available year round!
After the day I was overjoyed to get home to a 40 inch high wall of plowed snow in front of my drive way (again, they honor me with this effort every time we get enough white wet to plow). Well it's a short one (Jenni doesn't seem to complain though) and I have to get to the warming car.

I pay the Association to to place the streets precip in front of my drive so I can get shoveling exercise. Wah ha!
Chuck Pace ©2009 
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Sometimes there is nothing you can do to salvage a craptastic day. Sometimes the stars and heavens are aligned against us an ther is nothing to do but endure the day, and hope that the next one is tilted in your favor. I hope tomorrow is the best day of the year (so far anyway).
Chuck Pace ©2009 
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I am not much for resolutions per se, I feel that if you are inclined to change for the better you are going to do it. That your personal resolve should be enough to guide your process. If you feel that your too weak to carry out a self adjustment without your friends chiding you if you don't then you might have forgotten that your true friends love you for who you are, they want you to be happy, and they will help you if they can but usually won't be overly judgmental to the reality that you are human. Heck most of my friends are human too, and my pets love me even more unconditionally than all but the very best of them.
I think Determination is a better thing than resolution. However the dictionary I used for the first example starts with: firmness of character or purpose, resolution. If you do not find an equitable resolution to your problems with others however, a judicial determination may be in your future. A consonance in which a dissonance is resolved indeed! So there is that.
I'm glad we had this little talk, I will attempt to be more frequent with the posted offerings but that is far from a resolution, just a little more determination to post on my part.
Chuck Pace ©2009 
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It is Sunday and the recovery is well under way. I have been home and not so well since I left work on Friday at 10:30. Somewhere between Wednesday and Friday morning I came down with some wicked cold/flu symptoms. Thursday I was sniffling and sneezing a bit, Friday I went to work with an eye that would not stop watering, and ear that crackled each time I moved my jaw, and bursts of coughing that would deprive me of enough oxygen that I would be dizzy for twenty or thirty seconds after the fit was over. I called Jenni and asked her to contact our Doctor in Cumberland, within minutes I had an appointment text show up on the iPhone. I informed the powers that be that I was going to see the doctor and expecting to get a shot. I picked up Jenni so that she could have the car for a return trip and to continue her work day. At home I didn't have much time before the time. I started the truck and let it warm up for a bit, then headed off to see the wizard, or shaman or medicine man.

My Daily Bread, O.K. so I exaggerate, but...
To get a quick appointment at a Doctor's office actually means to get an opportunity to spend a lot of time at the Doctor's office. When I arrived I had a fever of about a hundred and just over a hundred fifty pages left in the Brisingr book I have been reading for a couple of weeks off and on. When I got behind the reception wall, the, hey I've been called to a higher plane call I had about 95 pages to go. A nurse followed me into the rome and did the inner ear temperature reading, and the blood pressure arm smashing and the embarrassing weight gain mention. I grabbed the kleenex box from the other side of the desk and dug back into the final chapters of the book after her departure. When the Doctor walked in I marked the page with one of my Roberts business cards and began to tell my story of woe and dread. The Doctor told me I was to sick to get a shot, since the shot's themselves take you down before building you up. Thirty five minutes later I was at the pharmacy counter at Meijer with three (prescriptions) scripts., which I was told should take about 30 minutes. I bought movies and oranges and orange juice and Zicam while waiting. The Movies Tropic Thunder, Hancock and Hellboy 2 were watched in that order over two nights counting and today. After Meijer my next stop was Wally World for my last script, a $4 medicine. A colossal sphere with hands at the Wally drop off counter and told me it would be 45 minutes. I went back to the Truck, grabbed the book and walked to the Steak and Shake across the parking lot. There Kathy made me feel right at home, I had 5 way Chili with cheesy fries on the side and a diet Cherry Coke. She even brought me extra napkins for my draining nasal passages and my sorry red weeping eye. While dining the iPhone counted down the minutes until I could retrieve my final meds and go home and finally rest. Kathy must have thought I was reading a very sad book because she asked what I was reading. When I said it is the third book in the Eragon Cycle I must have said it in the Ancient Language or in a Dwarfish dialect because she comprehended not a wit.

IPhone alarms and I'm back in Wally's arms. At the payment first window I stood and waited for 10 minutes to say and pay. Next they sent me consultation window to consult with a pharmacist who was currently consulting with a phone caller for another 10 or more minutes. Eventaully she came over, picked up the pouch and said, "Mr. Pace?"
"Yup." I said with a weeping eye and a sore throat and stuffy nose. This is amoxicillin, have you taken it before? "Yup."
"Do you have any questions for me?" "Nope."
Three and a half hours after I pushed through the door and into the Doctors office I was in the truck and heading home. I looked forward to crashing. Which first meant walking Charlie. Then putting the tea pot on, then taking a barrage of medicines, putting on sweats, making the tea. Walking Charlie again because he was sure it was time. I was on the couch for less than an hour when Jenni came home. I finished the book.
Chuck Pace ©2008 
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As I get older, and I'm doing it even as I write these simple missives, (those first 15 words were written by a younger me, I now have more experience than that foolish pre-15 word youthful version) it seems I get busier. Or to be exact it seems like the stack and list of things I haven't gotten done yet gets longer. Now I'm not talking about a bucket-list, I'm just talking about the everyday crap that comes up and it is a good idea to do stuff, the that can be put off until, stuff. The good intentions stuff. The unnoticed foundation stuff. The stuff.
Well my blogs take about 45 minutes out of each day on an average, some shorter, some longer, some.. Well as you are making me painfully aware my readers (and you know who you are) I have missed a few installments of the banality barrage that is my coexistence. 49 since my last post for you bean counters (presupposing that you labeled each day not blogged in my own uniquely chuckpace.com way as a bean, which is a stretch, possibly like a... hmm, a seed pod, but I digress) which is 36 hours and 45 minutes of not sitting in front of the computer before going in to work, or watching the game or, well usually not hitting the snooze button again.
To put it another way: I pay the hosting site service $11.00 per month to have a place to house my ranting and remarking and remembering. If I use the blog as a means of storing my ideas on a daily basis the cost is only 37 cents a day. By missing a staggering 49 days since the Big Gas Hole (now healed and resuming its previous occupation as a surface for driving and parking) I have made this post cost $18.50 ($ 8:13 in arrears + today's .37) so obviously with the tightening economy it is actually more fiscally responsible for me to post more frequently. I shall do my part to trim the waste out of my blogging expense and provide a more responsible disgorging of discourse.
Furthermore, if I manage a few posts today I can take that cost to product deficiency ratio down considerably. Two posts just $9.25 each, three, just under $6.17 each. There I have addressed the kernel computing crowd, the embryonic plant enumerators , the ripe ovule relegaters, or simply put, the bean counters.
Chuck Pace ©2008 

So it looks like the blessed day is almost upon us. Well not us actually, Scot and Anni. There is a wedding this weekend and it will be joining Mr. Proctor and Ms. Hood. Then there is the week off honey moon and all that rot. As is the ritual there was a convening of friends at some popular watering hole or another to pass on best wishes and warnings. Last night's passage to the mouth of hell bliss was first the Chatterbox then later McNivens for dining and final warm and fuzzies (and warnings). Our wait person at McNivens was Ryan (if that really is her name) and I asked her to point the digital pixel compactor at our assemblage and capture the moment. Judging by the multi-farious faces on smile bloomage she did an excellent job.

All Hail the soon to be Conquered Hero!
(l to r) Rich C. Jeff B. CP(ME) Rachel A. Mike W and C.Scott P.
Later during and the food consuming portion of our dining experiment experience I compacted a few more pixels in the same fashion. The shot of Rachel Aspy and Mike Wilson aptly demonstrates the different opinions of having an image captured. The evening was a success and at around midnight it began a whole new day as most evenings are want to do. Rich and Mike (or was it C.Scott) also sampled the Monty Python's Holy Grale, but I can not attest to the taste I had my customary Robert The Bruce and I was home long before the new day deal, but I here that rabbit was dynamite.
This wasn't a dream, it was real and the shiny black spiders were pleasantly keeping to themselves.

Oh, Picture time meets Nobody said there were going to be Pictures!

Chuck Pace ©2008 
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Well we did it to the best of our limited ability and finances. The big on vacation project is all but finished. I removed the carpet in the hall way on Monday. On wednesday I acid cleaned and etched the concrete floor. then I came up with a simple design for the pattern of the new stained floor, then I came up with another pattern and finally I had a pattern I could stan standing on. Yesterday it was an all day affair masking, and prepping and painting and waiting between each step. Don't get me wrong I did other things this week we were able to get in 8 episodes of Angel, and watch a rental movie during all this waiting to dry and such. So it has been a vacation. I have to be back at work on Tuesday so we still have three plus days ahead. We are using that time to visit Jenni's folks and sibs in Tennessee. Here is the images of the floor project., We will be adding a urethane sealer soon as we can figure how not to stick two cats and one blind dog in it permanently.

Before and after.
Now off to the In-Laws.
Happy Fourth of July!
Chuck Pace ©2008

I could talk about the wonderful party at Kays. They are always wonderful there. I could talk about the home stretch of shopping, but that is a given now. I could talk about missing family but that is too painful to dwell on. I could talk about the blur that is these last few days of December, or the constant wondering 'what day of the week is this' that happens when there is no sun in the morning and no sun in the evening, but that has been beat to death like...
The whole point of the holidays is to be with the ones you love, most of them are in Northern Florida, Southern Florida, Tennessee, and in our hearts. We will be with them all and we will be alone together at the same time. I could say sappy crap like that. I could I could, I could...
I could start the car an warm it up, I could take out the trash and I could go to work.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD REST.
Chuck Pace©2007
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Cayennes, Anaheims, Jalapénos, Cherry Tomatoes and one Habenéro.Chuck Pace ©2007

It felt good to sleep in a bit. I got up at 9:30. Was outside gathering peppers and tomatoes an hour later. I've been straightening and washing cloths and most of all taking it easy in the heat. By now my parents should be back in Florida, they took a little vacation from retirement for a couple of weeks and visited with Mom's baby brother Jimmie and his family in West Virginia for a week, then headed up to Indiana and my brother Dennis' for another week. Saturday was the mildest day in a very long time and it couldn't have come at better time (between Friday and Sunday?). I had Saturday off they spent the day here. We all spent most of the time outside in the garden, I grilled and entertained and caught up a bit with the folks. I heard stories and such of Uncle Jim's kids, there are so many of them I don't even think I could name them all, two boy and six or seven girls, that I haven't seen since probably 1973 or 74. Mom was showing me pictures and saying this is so and so, and this is Calvin and this is Missy and Neil and Tammy's kids and I'm like wait. Which one is Neil? Tammy has Kids? Who is Calvin. So I got a very remedial acquaintance with my Uncle's family in the two dimension 4x6 sense. Calvin is Aunt Juanita's brother for all of you out there keeping score.
As I sit here doing this input thing the sky is alive with sound of jets practicing for the Air show this weekend, but every time I go outside to see if I can get a photo its a no show.

At the top under the header photo is a shot of my dad Phil Pace enjoying the climate in the garden. Directly above one of my gardening assistants checks the quality of the Basil I'm growing for cooking and especially Tomato Pies. Yum.

Chuck Pace © 2007
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50 years is a milestone in any endeavor. Especially when serving the public and making the community a better place to be, not as a volunteer or an elected person or a even man of cloth, but as a retail outlet. Most businesses that maintain for half a century are either small mom and pop shops, or become parts of larger corporations and lose their identity. Yesterday Roberts Distributors stood on the summit, and looked out and back on 50 years of retail, growth, and investment in itself, its employees and a community. I've been there since just after the 31st anniversary, saw the store go from a catalog showroom entity (like Service Merchandise) to Nationally recognized and respected camera store with connections to nearly all the 'big' players, shooters and imaging professionals out there. From a mom and pop where you could get your film, toaster, luggage and a nice wedding band, to a company where you could get the latest amateur, hobbyist or professional camera gear at competitive prices from a real person with more than just a passing knowledge of the operation and function of the product. Happy Birthday to Roberts. Many more happy anniversaries to come (I won't say returns, as that is a retail no-no).
Chuck Pace © 2007
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Forty One. That is the magic number. It looks great next to $389.78. It means about another 170.00. I don't have it. I can get it but it has to come from another part of a budget so full of holes that there will be suffering and added misery. I can't get it soon. But I need to.
Forty One is the number of miles I drove the Bimmer after the radiator and strut replacements before another problem reared its ugly head. I feel like Jason of the Argonauts fighting a four headed hydra, struggle to knock out one head and there are still 3 to fight and the sword is getting so heavy. Someone call Ray Harryhousen and tell him to give me a break. The new problem is in the same corner the brake disc is now rubbing in one spot as though severely warped. To the point that it feels like the whole corner is going to seize up and break. If I do the work myself it is about 119.00 for the rotor. and another 40.00 for new pads, with tax that about 170. Then I'll need to bleed (I am bleeding, I'm hemorrhaging actually, but it's green not red. Add 170 to the 389.00 I've already spent to get the struts and cooling and that is an expensive forty-one miles, well I had to drive another 12 miles with the thing seizing grabbing and shuddering on the right side (this applies equally to Jenni in the passenger seat and the disc brake assembly actually) after the brake started its terrorizing me. About $10.57 per mile (not counting fuel) since I picked up the car from BFM.
I need an economy car, a leather vest and a sword, and a half dozen argonauts, two eclairs and for glazed please. Well, Jenni is ready to give me a ride in in the truck. Work calls duty calls. But Misery won't hang up for me to answer the other calls. Leave a message I'll get back to you.
There may be no golden fleece
but human riches I'll release
oh, my head is spinning like the world
and it's filled with beasts I've seen,
let me put my bag down
and I'll tell you it all right from the start.
like the scarlet woman who would pick on the boys
she thought were green, and the two faced man
who made a hobby of breaking his wife's heart.
seems the more I travel, from the foam to gravel,
as the nets unravel, all exotic fish
I find like jason and the argonauts
there may be no golden fleece
but human riches I'll release.

I was in a land where men force women to hide
their facial features,
and here in the west it's just the same
but they're using make-up veils.
I've seen acts of every shade of terrible crime
from man-like creatures, and I've had the breath
of liars blowing me off course in my sails.
seems the more I travel,
from the foam to gravel, as the nets unravel,
all exotic fish
I find like jason and the argonauts
there may be no golden fleece
but human riches I'll release.
I have watched the manimals go buy---buying shoes,
buying sweets, buying knives.
I have watched the manimals and cried
buying time, buying ends to other peoples lives.

jason and the argonauts
there may be no golden fleece
but human riches I'll release.
Chuck Pace © 2007
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How many times did I hit the snooze. Another night without many z's in the sleep bank. I tossed and turned, beat up a pillow, and tormented in a horizontal torture chamber. Finally after two hours I packed it in and went to the couch. The tocks reigned havoc on the ticks and the battle ensued, Somewhere after 2:30, with Charlie laying on my feet I entered the sleep chamber of horrors only to start whacking the snooze button on the alarming cellular mere seconds later, or maybe it was a scant handful of hours, or maybe it never happened. 'Twasn't enough, M'lord, I barely crashed before the somnambulance driver had me on my feet again. I can't say I dreamed, there was no time, more like I schemed, conspired with the alarm for a scant few more seconds, since my first course was so insubstantial. I got my just deserts. But just deserts are not enough to sustain. Is this making any sense? I don't know let me sleep on it. I'm still struggling to crawl to the surface of reality although I'm sitting here typing, most of the moment is draining through a colander of coherence, and it feels like I'm (or my mind is) as much asleep as alive right now. Soon I expect the switch to be thrown, and intelligible thought to follow. In any case I'll need a new switch, I should have never thrown that one, I could have flipped it, but I had no interest in seeing what it looked like from a different perspective, I didn't want to see it at all.
More time, snooze. Snooze time. Damn, that was not ten minutes I barely sat the accursed instrument of my resurrection back on the table. SNOOZE, it must be broken. When I was a youth and I had transgressed a boundary or rule my mother would sometimes begin my punishment with this phrase, "Get a knife out of the kitchen drawer and go cut me a switch, to whip you with." The horror of being the tool of deliverance for your own punishment is often more punishment than the lashes received, this was the case again as I stumbled to the door frame and actuated the switch from light to dark, allowing spark to tungsten filament unabated and illuminating a dwelling outside a still dark and clouded mental landscape, still praying for more time. Give me... , aww I'm awake now time to get ready for a foray into to the world of commerce, perhaps I'll buy a little time and tick it in my sleep bank. I have to go apologize to a pillow. I'll see you in the sleep hazed dream that is your reality, mine's busted.
Do I hear Louis Armstrong playing "Dream A Little Dream of Me" ?
DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME
(W. Schwant / F. Andre / G. Kahn)
Yes, stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you"
Birds singin' in the sycamore trees
Dream a little dream of me, yes

Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me
While I'm alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me

Stars fading but I linger on dear
Still craving your kiss
I'm longin' to linger till dawn dear
Just saying this, yes

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me

------ instrumental break ------

Yes, stars fading but I linger on dear
Still craving your kiss
I'm longing to linger till dawn dear
Just saying this, yes

Sweet dreams till sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries far behind you
But in your dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me
Yes, dream a little dream of me

Chuck Pace © 2007
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Zombies arise! I'm too old for this... I don't know how many times Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) says that in the first Lethal Weapon movie, but I think I understand why he says it. I'm still trying to recover from a week old multi-race weekend, and I don't really know when I'm going to get enough sleep to get that done. There is always something keeping me from the oh so needed rest cycle, The Chatterbox, bowling, insomnia, work, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, insomnia, Crambone, insomnia. I've gone to bed by 10:00 the last three nights and still not woken refreshed. I may be like an old nicad battery, the ones that just lose their ability to maintain power, or never recharge fully after so many uses. I'm definitely on the downward side of the bell curve of middle age, I think I'll be o.k. for a while but soon it starts to get really steep. Steep,sleep deep sleep sheep sheep sheep... zzzzz.
The funny thing here is I was talking too Rich at work yesterday and he is struggling as much a I am, and he's ten years younger than I. Jack Green, Bill Brooks and I were talking about this too on Wednesday when I stopped in for a couple at the box, at 88 Jack still gets it done, while Brooks and I were talking about not feeling our age, or accepting that we are our age. Well, we may never grow up, but getting up from bed may become a little more difficult. I fell asleep in 'the chair' watching a 'taped' episode of rescue me on Wednesday night. That is rare for me. Maybe a sign of things to come.
Tonight at Clancey's there is another Crambone show. These are shows. I don't say Crambone is playing, these are shows. The lead singer Jeff is just a little crazy, and you never know what he's going to do next. I tell stories of the things he's done at the three shows I've attended, and I here even more outrageous tales from the ones I've missed. Mercifully I have saturday off and may get to sleep until noon. I hope I get to sleep until at least 10. o.k. 8. Well what ever sleep I get will be welcomed, and will end too soon. I'm done here I've got to take some vitamins.
Sorry there are no pictures, I got too late to work on that. I don't know maybe I'm still a little groggy. What was the post about today?
I don't remember.

Chuck Pace © 2007
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"For my own part I have never had a thought which I could not set down in words with even more distinctness than that which I conceived it." Edgar Alan Poe.
So my missus tells me that she misses the daily post, the rambling writings, and the boarding pass to my flights of passing fancy. I admit that it is cathartic at times to sit and roll with the moment at keyboard and LCD, but there are so many times when I have nothing really to say that it seems a great waste of effort. The work of wordsmithing, if not physically exhausting is still very difficult and requires diligence and mental fatigue at times. I identify with the quote from Poe above from his "A Dream Within a Dream" and truly feel I can almost achieve a level of eloquence, or "distinctness" at the keyboards far better than my clumsy tongue can ever manufacture. I am an aside (adding my thoughts in the stream of...) kind of guy when I type just as I am an aside kind of guy when I talk, but rarely do I stumble over the words that are manufactured from the digits instead of the palate. Even having said this, if I am to get back into the rhythm of daily puking of thoughts I feel I should have some content worthy. More than just remunerating bowling scores or attendees at the local watering hole. I'm sure that I will still do plenty of that, too much for many tastes I'm sure, but I wish for a clarity of purpose or at least a direction to my missives. The other day I sat for two hours and wrote a travel piece with pictures and details that was lost in a laptop lock-up that could only be rectified with a reboot. The damn thing locked up as I was trying to save it. How frustrating. I have yet to recreate that post, since the spontaneity of creation is lost in redeux, and the originality forced. I rarely have a direction when I sit to task at computer and blog. It is as new to me as it is to dear reader when I have finished, even if it is a recap of a horrible or fabulous even at kegeling. Yet I feel I must recapture that posts spirit if not its majesty (such as it were). So I will tell that tale again soon. I have the pictures reloaded, and saved, and with their baptism I shall see them rise again (from keystroke and screen) my brothers and sisters.
The photo above is from Lebanon, and the trip I mentioned above. It is symbolic of my need to get back to the task. To be current and Modern in my posings. Many of you have asked for it, now you are going to get it.

Chuck Pace © 2007
As "Modern" as Richard Morris' 1967 musical comedy, "Thoroughly Modern Millie"
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Work , work. work, work, work. Hello boys(and girls) did you miss me? I was up at 9 yesterday, out the door for errands by 9:15, and back from all my running (o.k. driving) by 10:20, from then on it was yard projects (one of which meant tearing up the world HQ), mowing, cleaning and such, planting and watering and basic yardening until about 4:15 when, I had to go get something to eat. I was dizzy and trembling, and suffering from heat prostration I'm sure. The wind was something fierce yesterday too, it ripped my trumpet vines off the side of the house, and broke one of the lesser limbs of my tulip tree. Gads.
Shifting gears: On wednesday Jenni and I stopped at Wendy's for lunch and took the fast food to Garfield Park, where we were harassed by squirrels. Three separate ones watched us eat, one bold one came and sat on the bench a couple of feet from Jenni,. We tried to give him a piece of lettuce from a sandwich, and he was having none of it, then Jenni tried a fry, and that fit the bill nicely. Pretty soon he was coming up and taking fries right out of our hands, while we warned the bushy tailed rodent that these were empty hollow calories, he none the less insisted on begging several more during our visit. I was lucky to have my camera and got a few good shots of our lunch company.

Chuck Pace © 2007
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The Receiving Line? Matt hopes they enjoy the Chafing Dish. Chuck Pace © 2007
The all vendor spring demo is over, the Canon specific demo is in the offing. This weekend was the absolutely worst weather for a demo, the skies were azure and cloudless, the temperatures were in the 70's and the camera geeks and buyers were smitten with springs blush. Sure there were a few takers, but many more avoided the downtown proper because of the umptenth annual firefighters convention downtown and throughout our fair micro-metropolis. I worked saturday and was busy with as much infrastructure and camera sensor cleanings as I was with sales. There is not as much room up front for an all out rep assault as there was in the old configuration, but those who could horn in got theirs.
Sunday was a stunner. What a dish Mother Nature gave us. Jenni and I worked in the yard for over an hour then I grabbed a book (Next, by Michael Crichton) and spent a little more time with the lovely weather before it was time to shower and then hit the bowling alley for the "Nothing Better To Do" Finale. Team "Mel 'N' Them went in two behind the 6th place team and two in front of the 8th team firmly in 7th we won 4 points and lost four points and most likely stayed 7th. Jenni subbed for Wil/Mel and David , Rich and I rounded out the evenings adventure.

This morning I grabbed a few shots of the Apple Blossoms in bloom in the back yard, and of course had the song "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White"by The Harmonicats playing in my head the entire time, it was and is lovely like the day before and behind us. Enjoy.
Chuck Pace © 2007
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The new camera dept. with some of its fixtures, Chuck Pace © 2007
The store continues to change and adapt to the new surfaces, spaces and arrangement. The employees continue to adapt to the same thing, while many of the regular customer will walk right by the new camera location on their way back to the older ingrained area like Pavlovian Photographers. I even had one customer stop at one of my rare sojourns in the camera area and say to me, "Hey aren't you in the wrong area, aren't you supposed to be the cameras in the back?" I won't say who that was but he has the same last name as at least one of the Three Stooges. I thought, "There is that keen observational eye that most good photographers have", but said, "I am in cameras, the SLR's are right here behind me, see?" I say a rare sojourn because I've spent more time in the last two weeks moving, lifting, sliding, tilting, unstacking and stacking, stacking and unstacking, arranging and changing than I have in or around cameras, camera sales or camera customers, that's the way it has been for several of us, and of course sales have suffered, and commissions are omissions for the few who are commission pay based. I thought this would happen, and it looks like it will continue in some for or another even after the rearrangement is final.
Tomorrow after work its home to pack, then bowling. After that we attempt a few hours of sleep then dash down and over to Bristol Tennessee for Nasca r Racing in the fishbowl. Travis and Mike W. are joining Rich and I at the track, and our personal driver John Qualkenbush is driving us there in his motor home. I expect the place to look a little different when we return, but not as much as if we had stayed, since Rich has applied most of the muscle and construction savvy. Not to mention relocating all the hardware. I think most of the changes when we return on Tuesday will be of a location of inventory and equipment nature, with 80% of the grunt work being done, but 20 % of the staff already. The photos above are of Dan the Floor man and Rich's old office corner continuing to evolve. The inevitable change even comes to Roberts, it just had to take the scenic route.

The refurbished jewelry area, I wonder what Bob is looking at? Chuck Pace © 2007
Chuck Pace © 2007
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Not Many Rushers for the Hour, Pre-Construction area. Chuck Pace © 2007
Just a little over a week into Super 70, I am excited to see the changes and improvements, I normally would take I-70 from the far east side to downtown and back after work about 80% of the time. Right now I've been on I-70 twice since returning from vacation, both times in the waning daylight hours after rush hour traffic would be long gone. The traffic has slowed a lot, and the work seems to be going pretty quick, but, we shall see.

Floored between Friday and Monday. Chuck Pace © 2007
As momentous as the Super 70 project is, the more amazing one is right down-town at Roberts. The laminate flooring has started to go down in the front, and the effect is immediate, the place looks warmer and more modern. Why shouldn't, I think that Bob and Rose took the old carpet from an Egyptian temple when Pharoah released the hebrews and set them to wander into the desert with Moses. I have started documenting this change too, and plan to present the store with a collection of shots when the process reaches fruition.

New Camera Central. Chuck Pace © 2007
I of course will keep you posted, so to speak.
Next we make bricks without straw, where's you're God now Moses?
Chuck Pace © 2007
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Yesterday, almost as nice at Florida weather yesterday, Swingin'! Chuck Pace © 2007
Yesterday was a beautiful day, I grilled out and made a whole new experimental marinade for pork chops, yum. I will have to remember what and how much of what I put in that marinade. It was awsome. Then there was the Nascar race from Las Vegas. ? I don't know what happened. I led the fantasy league until there were only 19 laps left. That's when Jeff Burton's battery stopped charging and he started falling back. He was looking for a caution to change put the battery, unfortunately for me he got one four laps later. When poll sitter Kasey Kahne lost control and backed hard into the wall and finished his day, and mine. Congratulations to Ed Sipes for his fantasy racing win. So I really do know what happened, but I was looking forward to a another big win.
Today it's back to work, where they started putting down the laminate flooring on Saturday evening, I can't wait to see how much they got done.
Chuck Pace © 2007
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Al Stewart Anyone? Nope. Renovation at Roberts. I started in 1988. The carpet on the floors had started a few years earlier. The show cases were old and wooden, the primary mode of merchandise display was gondolas in the aisles. We were a catalog showroom. Well lots of things have changed, and lots of things have stayed the same. By this time next week just about everything will be different. The changes when they do happen are usually dramatic. Like the building of the photo-lab, or the addition of the the warehouse an d loading dock. But the most sweeping (and mopping) changes are just about to happen. The carpet, which is so old and faded, is about to be replaced by laminate wood flooring. Bruce recently mad the comment that removing the carpet could cause a collapse in the building, he figures after 20+ years the carpet has become a structural member, a load bearing element. On the album Pyramid, The Alan Parsons Group aptly says, "What goes up must come down, what must rise must fall." Such is the case with the first managers office, come e-bay office come scrap pile yesterday. "Ch-ch-ch changes turn and faced the strain... " David Bowie. "Strange days indeed, most peculiar momma..." John Lennon.
The scary thing is how fast almost twenty years working at Roberts can be erased both physically and figuratively. The knocking down of walls and moving of cases makes tomorrow a new day with a new outlook, and something different. Of course in 6 months it will seem like it's always been the way it is going to be in a few weeks. Such is the nature of repetitive behavior and unchanging patterns.
Chuck Pace © 2007
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Scott, Anni and Lex at the store on Tuesday last, Chuck Pace © 2007
So after what seemed like an eternity (9 days) I am partially able to post again. Partially; because there have been some major changes, for one the photo album is gone. For another I've built an archive 05-06 link to make the upload quicker, and less prone to instability. I will revise the photo album soon, with new and old photos alike, and update the stuff as I can. I already had one crash today after my first success in over a week. How was even the marginal victory achieved? I moved everything back to the mobile command center, since tomorrow after work Jenni, Meredith and I will be going mobile. First to Tennessee for a very brief stop and recoup before the long drive to Old Town Florida. I am up too late right now, and there is no way I can catch anybody up in one post anyway, suffice it to say, I've bowled, repaired cars, shoveled an olympic sized pools worth of snow and ice, and enjoyed having my daughter here for almost 5 weeks. David has flown up from Florida for Valentines day and returned, the car has had her hiccups cured, and the Nascar season has returned. There has been one race, and one winner so far, in the race it was Kevin Harvick, in the fantasy league it was me.
There has been two more Pacers in trouble, Anna Nicole has bought the big Air-Head Ranch in the sky, Lost has been found and Smallville continues to be awesome.
Anni Hood has become Mother hood after birthing a very handsome micro Scott (yes even smaller than the original), and Alexander 'Lex' Thomas Scott Proctor has made a visit to the Store and C. Scott has returned to work after a little more than a week off. Life goes on and I go south to retrieve some of my sanity. Wish me luck, I've been without it for quite a long time.
So I have to ask, has the heart grown fonder?
Chuck Pace © 2007
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